Book Burning

03Feb

Would you ever burn a book?

One of my favorite school required readings that I ever had was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In that story, firefighters did not put out fires. They started them, usually with the intent to burn books and any other material that allowed the citizens to think for themselves. The main form of entertainment was a scripted, semi-interactive television shows. It was morbidly fascinating to read about not only people’s minds having deteriorated due to never having their own thoughts, but for the main character to come to realization that, hey, maybe burning books isn’t that great of an idea.

It’s a fantastic read if you haven’t gotten a chance to pick it up yet. This was just a thought that came to mind in light of some recent events that I’ve seen on Twitter (if you follow J.K. Rowling, you probably know what I’m talking about).

I don’t think I could ever burn a book. I don’t think I’ve even thrown one. I’ve given up on a few stories, rolled my eyes plenty of times regarding plots and character actions that I didn’t necessarily agree with, but I’ve never set fire to one.